Wakayama Governor Kishimoto Dies at 68

Wakayama, April 15 (Jiji Press)--Shuhei Kishimoto, governor of Wakayama Prefecture in western Japan, died of septic shock at a hospital in the prefectural capital of Wakayama on Tuesday morning. He was 68.

According to the prefectural government, Kishimoto received treatment at the hospital after he was found collapsed in his bedroom around 10:15 a.m. Monday by officials who went to his official residence in the city as they could not reach him.

Kishimoto visited the 2025 World Exposition in the western city of Osaka on Sunday.

The native of the city of Wakayama was first elected to the House of Representatives, the lower chamber of the Diet, Japan's parliament, in 2009, after serving as head of a Finance Ministry division. As a lawmaker, he took such key posts as parliamentary vice minister of economy, trade and industry.

He resigned as a Lower House member during his fifth term to run in a Wakayama gubernatorial election in 2022. He won the election with recommendations from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan and the Democratic Party for the People, also an opposition party, and was in his first term as governor.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]